81 pages • 2 hours read
Jean Craighead GeorgeMy Side of the Mountain
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1959A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 20-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 20 Summary: “More About the Spring in the Winter and the Beginning of My Story’s End”
One day as Sam and Frightful wander through the woods, a young man around Sam’s age approaches. He introduces himself as Matt Spell and tells Sam that he works after school for a New York newspaper. Matt also tells Sam that he came to the Catskills motivated to find the wild boy living in the Catskills, believing that he could get a job as a reporter if he successfully captured the story. Sam spends much of the day deceiving Matt, attempting to convince Matt that he’s not the wild boy from the other news stories. Sam even claims to have seen the wild boy before, suggesting that he lives in a cave. When Matt reads back his notes to Sam, it become clear that Sam’s attempts at misleading him have not worked, as Matt describes Sam’s physical appearance and present whereabouts.
Sam begs Matt not to publish this accurate story about him, which would surely trigger more reporters and other people to invade. The two young men ultimately strike a deal whereby Matt will not publish the story if Sam allows him to spend his spring vacation at Sam’s camp. After Matt leaves, Sam nervously walks back to his camp, debating with himself about what he should do. Sam tells the reader that he often holds conversations like this inside his head, hearing the voices of people he knows but who aren’t currently present, such as his dad and Bando.
Sam refers to these discussions in his head as forums, and during this particular forum about Matt Spell, he hears his dad suggesting he run down to the city and make sure nothing is published, while Bando tells him not to worry. For the first time in one of these forums, Sam hears Frightful’s voice. Frightful jokingly tells Sam not to let Matt come back because he eats too much. More insightfully, Sam hears Frightful warn him that he wants to be found because otherwise Sam would not have revealed so many key details about himself to Matt.
Chapter 21 Summary: “In Which I Cooperate with the Ending”
While bathing in a local spring in April, Sam encounters a songwriter named Aaron. Sam teaches Aaron several songs, including ones he has invented about the birds in the Catskills. Taking a liking to Aaron, Sam tells him that he can use these song lyrics however he pleases. Aaron tells Sam that he’ll later return with a portable organ so that he can play the songs for him. Following this interaction, Sam once again hears the voice of Frightful inside his head, warning him about wanting to be found.
A few days later, Sam meets up with Matt Spell, blindfolding him and leading him up the mountain to his tree house. They spend the next few days fishing, hunting, trapping, and gathering greens and bulbs. Thus begins a string of visits at Sam’s camp, with Bando arriving shortly after Matt. Bando brings more newspaper clippings to Sam, and Matt mentions photographers likely snooping about. Sam comes to the conclusion that he is no longer hidden nor a completely unknown wild boy living in the Catskills.
The next visitor is “Mr. Jacket,” whom Sam met months earlier in the town drugstore. At this point Sam learns Mr. Jacket’s real name to be Tom Sidler. The two become good friends, and Tom continues visiting Sam almost every weekend. These frequent visits remind Sam of his Third Avenue apartment, with a city-like community and regular society developing around him. Aaron the songwriter comes back to play songs for Sam. So does Bando, who now uses a car to make regular visits to the Gribley farm. Speaking to Bando at the end of the chapter, Sam points out, “‘I seem to have an address now’” (171).
Chapter 22 Summary: “In Which the City Comes to Me”
One morning in June, Sam wakes up to a reporter’s camera flashing in his face. Sam tells the reader that photographers and reporters like this began flooding the Gribley farm property, and Sam admits that he began talking to these people when they asked him questions.
A few days later, Sam’s dad visits, and as Sam goes to greet his dad, he realizes that his dad brought the entire family. Sam’s family carries supplies with them, including fried chicken and hammocks. Sam’s dad reveals that Sam’s mom wanted to bring home to Sam if he was not going to come home. In this moment Sam realizes that “this was not an overnight camping trip, but a permanent arrangement” (175).
Sam’s mom explains that law requires her to take care of her underage son. She’s also upset and offended by all of the newspaper stories that made her seem like a bad parent. Sam’s mom notices his disappointment and attempts to convince Sam that her family ancestors, the Stuarts, loved the land. The story concludes with Sam showing the rest of his family his way of life at the Gribley farm. Then Sam’s dad begins propping up some fours-by-fours and lets Sam know that he plans on building a house for the entire family to live in.
Chapters 20-22 Analysis
Sam’s life of solitude and independence comes crashing down over these final chapters. Society floods the camp that Sam has spent months creating on the Gribley farm property. Sam, at least partially, brings this publicity upon himself. This happens vividly in Chapter 20 when Sam reveals far too much information to Matt Spell, and in fact, it becomes implied that Sam wanted to be found. In his own head, Sam hears the voice of Frightful suggesting this to be true—a likely way for Sam’s deeper thoughts to manifest or reveal themselves.
The acts raise the question of why Sam would actively want to be found. Despite trying to mislead Matt Spell in Chapter 20, Sam also takes a liking to Matt. Sam takes a liking to several others as well throughout the second half of the story, as we see that Sam enjoys sharing his experiences of survival with people. At the end of Chapter 21, Sam tells Bando that his camp now seems to have an address, suggesting how easily and regularly people come to visit Sam. He’s developed genuine, meaningful friendships with Bando, Tom Sidler, Matt Spell, and others, all of which indicate a shift in Sam’s desire from solitude to community.
The story’s conclusion in Chapter 22 is a somewhat realistic one. When Sam’s parents allowed him to run away from home to live in the mountains, they likely expected him to return right away, as most kids would do. Although Sam has proven over the past year that he can survive on his own, the laws of regular society do not allow for parents to willingly abandon their children. This realization obviously upsets Sam, but his family coming to live at the Gribley farm with him does not take away from Sam’s adventure and all that came with it.
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By Jean Craighead George
